Syria

‘What a shame the same attention has not been paid by the international media to the deaths of 250,000 or so Syrians in the way that it was paid to the 130 who died in Paris.’ (John McHugo). John McHugo’s book provides a refreshing antidote to the doleful, pernicious, neo-con assessments currently plaguing academia, which attempt to portray both the historical and present complexities surrounding the currently intractable conflict in Syria in controversial and prejudicial terms. These assessments are unable to peer beyond patronage and tribalism and contortions of Islam, that are in turn, largely accepted uncritically by a credulous or like-minded western media, readily acknowledging large swathes of the opposition to the Syrian regime on the regime’s own terms – primarily, maligned as religious extremists. McHugo can be commended for producing a timely, erudite and sympathetic account that could become recommended reading for undergraduate programmes which focus on the Middle-East. He has authored a profoundly valuable book for interested lay readers, policy-makers and politicians to foster engagement with, and understanding of, Syrian history and its current intricacies, in a thoughtful, empathetic and ethical manner. The light emanating from his noble stance shines in stark contrast to the brutal, callous involvements in Syria endorsed by global leaders.